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Monk and the Riddle

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The Monk and the Riddle
By Randy Komisar

I must admit I knew nothing about entrepreneurship before this course started, I didn’t even know how to spell it (think I still don’t). But while reading this book and as the storyline advances and with each page read I found myself noticing similarities and identifying with Lenny. How do I want to live my life? I know I have pondered on that questions several times in my life, but after reading this book, I find that question which used to arise every now and then usually as a conversation starter, has now become a permanent thought in my mind ending with several exclamation points. Am I aiming towards a deferred life plan or am I really focusing on what I love to do? Am I Lenny 2.0, missing the “Big picture” and only focused on “Results” as my philosophy? Am I overestimating my product or underestimating my market?

I started believing that this book would be one of those “How to” (Entrepreneurship for dummies) book, some guy’s lovely memoirs masqueraded as an instruction manual for newbies in the Entrepreneurship business, I was indeed very glad to be proved wrong. The book starts out with an awful pitch from Lenny, which resonated to a recent interview with a head hunter, who gave me feedback post interview in terms of too much energy & overly expressive in my CV (Which he handed back with huge X’s everywhere). Sometimes you need a “Randy” to tell you that indeed you have worked hard but that it is not enough and you can always continue to change and improve things. Mistakes are not always bad and can provide a good learning opportunity, by drafting and re-drafting my CV several times it could only get better, as what happened with funerals.com that went from being a “casket selling - only interested in money making business” to a “Community and family oriented business – interested in guiding and helping people”.

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